You Weren't Supposed to Find That!
by KatanaNoNeko
Summary: While Natsu is out getting groceries, Lucy decided to clean. It's while she's cleaning that she finds something that will change her life for the better. Nalu. And don't get the wrong idea from this description. This ain't a smut. Connected to a few of my other stories, but not connected so much that you have to read them to understand this. More details inside.


"Natsu, it's time to get up." Lucy said as she gently shook him. Well, shook him as best as she could. Natsu's arms were wrapped tightly around her body; a common occurrence. It wasn't like Lucy was complaining, though. It relaxed her to be in Natsu's arms; it made her feel loved and cherished. The dragon slayer had been Lucy's boyfriend for a year and a half, and they had been living together at what had previously been only his and Happy's house since about a week into their relationship. Although some of their fellow guild members had thought it was going too fast, neither had thought anything strange of it.

"Natsuuuu..."

Natsu groaned and squeezed Lucy's body even more tightly against his. "Natsu, you're squishing me! Come on, we need to get up!" Lucy attempted to remove Natsu's arms from her, to no avail.

"Awww, but I wanna stay like this... I like cuddling you..."

Lucy smiled, but then sighed. She loved it, too, but they needed to get ready for the day. She thought about how to get Natsu up, then came up with an idea. "Hey, Natsu, we need groceries. If you go buy them, then I'll cook a big breakfast for us!" Natsu sighed, but at a growl of his stomach, he realized that he did want food, and groggily separated from Lucy and sat up.

"Fine, But don't blame me when you regret getting out of bed." he said, kissing Lucy on the cheek. Lucy replied with a kiss of her own on his lips.

"There should be a shopping list on the kitchen counter. I'll clean up while you're out."

"M'kay, Luce." Natsu squeezed her hand before getting out of the bed and putting pants on over the flame-printed boxers that had been his pajamas. He walked past Happy, still sleeping on the end of the bed, and was envious that the exceed didn't have to get up yet.

Walking into the kitchen, Natsu looked around for the shopping list. "This the list, Luce? Eggs, milk..." Natsu called to the other room.

"Yup!" Lucy said, coming into the kitchen to give him a hug before he left. "Bye, I love you!"

Natsu grinned at her. "Love you too, Luce!" He kissed her, then was out the door.

Lucy waved, then closed the door behind him. She smiled and hummed, going to their bedroom to get clothes for the day. _I really do love him. It's all so great! Waking up beside him, watching him fight, being with him..._ Lucy blushed as her subconscious added the comment, _in more ways than one,_ to the latter. Moving past that, she continued as she came out of the bathroom, dressed for the day. _I want to spend the rest of my life with him. I can't imagine ever being with anyone else_.

Lucy went to clean the kitchen first. It wasn't too messy, since they hadn't been eating at home a whole lot. Natsu had been going on jobs every other day, so when he wasn't home, Lucy just ate at the guild.

 _Why has Natsu been going on so many jobs?_ Lucy wondered to herself. _We don't seem to have any extra money from it, so what is Natsu trying to pay for?_ A pulse appeared on Lucy's head as the thought came to her that Natsu had probably destroyed something of one of their clients and had to pay an exuberant price because of it. Then, Lucy's anger subsided and she laughed. She knew Natsu had especially been careful about not going overboard on jobs since they'd started sharing finances, so if that was the case, then she was actually proud of Natsu for lasting so long. _I wish he would've told me, but oh well. I'll just have to talk to him about it later_.

Lucy finished clearing off the counters and decided to pick up in the bedroom and living room before getting out the rags and cleaning sprays.

She worked in the living room and picked everything up off the floor before moving to the bedroom, where she was a little disgruntled at the sight. Natsu and Happy made the room more than a little messy, but she could deal with that. It wasn't like she was the only one who ever cleaned, anyways. _Natsu does his fair share. Happy... Not as much..._

"Good morning, Lushi!" A cheery voice called to her. _Well, speak of the devil._

"Good morning! I'm going to be cleaning, so if you want to help..."

Happy picked up his blanket off the floor. "I helped now! You can't complain!" Lucy rolled her eyes. Sometimes, the exceed was more than a little annoying, which even Natsu admitted, but they loved him anyways. _It'll probably be the same when Natsu and I have kids._ Lucy smiled at the thought.

"Natsu's grocery shopping, if you were wondering where he is," Lucy said, noting the cat's searching eyes.

"Okay!" The exceed went over to the drawers where he kept all his stuff and dug around for a bit before getting out his fishing pole, then added. "If I'm gonna catch a big fish for Carla today, then I need to get going. Bye, Lushi!" And with that, Happy flew out the window. Lucy waved and smiled, then sighed as she looked around the room again.

"All right! First step: dirty clothes!" Lucy grabbed a hamper, then went over to the bed, where some of Natsu's rumpled clothes were on the floor. She laughed when he saw the vest he wore every day on the floor, realizing that she had indeed seen Natsu's bare back as he had left. _It needs to be washed, anyways._ Lucy noted a ketchup blotch on the cloth, then reached down to pick it up. When she did so, a clatter sounded on the floor as something dropped out of one of the pockets. Lucy jumped, the sound scaring her for a moment. "Eh? What was that?" Whatever it was had bounced under the bed, and Lucy debated with herself about whether or not she should look.

Lucy's curiosity got the better of her, so she got on her hands and knees and reached underneath.

"Ouch!" Lucy yelped when she felt a sharp piece of wood stick her hand. _That must be a piece of the bed frame, from when..._ A fierce blush colored Lucy's face when she recalled the time they had broken the bed. Moving the piece of wood, Lucy continued her search for the object from Natsu's pocket. Surprisingly, there wasn't a whole lot of other stuff under the bed, which meant when her hand found something, she could be pretty sure that that was the item from Natsu's pocket. She noticed that it felt like a cube, covered in a soft, fuzzy material. Retracting her hand at first, Lucy realized that it hadn't felt like mold that would be on food Natsu would have tried to save in his pocket. Lucy shivered at the memory of such an instance from a few months ago. Taking hold of the object again, Lucy figured out that while the fuzz didn't feel like mold, it was a material that she recognized.

"Velvet?" Lucy took the box out from under the bed. "Why would Natsu have a velvet box in his pocket?" she asked aloud. Looking at it closer, Lucy noticed that there was a break in the sides of the box; it could be opened. _Oh, it's a jewelry box!_ Lucy basked in the small glory of figuring out what it was before another part of her mind caught up. "A jewelry box!?" The mage bit her lip. Should she look? It was probably supposed to be a present for her, and looking would ruin the surprise. Lucy's curiosity got the best of her again, though. When she opened the box, Lucy gasped.

Inside was a silver ring, appearing to be her size, made to look like a dragon. The dragon's body and appendages formed the band that would wrap around the wearer's finger. At the forefront of the beautiful piece was the dragon's head, and inside it's open jaws was a diamond.

Lucy felt a grin form on her face. _It's so beautiful!_ Part of her wanted to put the ring on, but this time, she stopped herself. That was Natsu's honor, for buying her such a dazzling ring.

 _But... Why did he get it for me, anyways?_ Lucy racked her brain for any holidays or special occasions that might have been approaching in the next week. When she didn't come up with anything, Lucy looked at the ring and its box again, hoping for some clue as to what the ring was for. Sighing, she found nothing. Lucy stroked a finger down the beautiful dragon's body. _What could you be for?_

Lucy heard the front door open, along with Natsu's cheerful voice. "I'm home, Luce!" Natsu said before the door was shut and the bags set on the kitchen counter.

"Hey, Natsu?" Lucy called from their bedroom, standing up to go into the kitchen.

"Yeah?"

"What's..." Lucy debated for a second about whether or not she should tell Natsu what she found. Deciding to be honest, Lucy continued. "What's this ring for?"

Natsu froze. "Uh... What ring?" _She can't be talking about that ring... Can she?_ Lucy was in the kitchen now and held up the open box for Natsu to see. "Oh no! You weren't supposed to find that!" Natsu took the box from her hands.

"I'm sorry! I found it while cleaning!"

"That was your engagement ring!"

Lucy's breath choked in her throat. "My- My enga- whahuh?" Lucy couldn't get any more words out.

"Yeah! I meant to find a place to hide it, but I didn't get the chance to after getting home yesterday!"

"You- yesterday-" Lucy was still having difficulties finding her words. She didn't even know how to react.

"Yeah! I saw the ring in a window while we were in Hargeon about a month ago for that one job we went on. I've been doing a bunch of extra requests to get the money together and buy it! Yesterday's was the last one I had to do!"

"That's- That's where all that money was going!? You- you were going to propose to me!?" Lucy finally knew how to react. A wide grin was forming on her face and her eyes lit up.

Now Natsu was the one to blush and get a little nervous, fully realizing that he had just told Lucy that he wanted to marry her. "Well, uh, yeah! I was... I didn't know when or how I was gonna propose, but when I saw that ring I knew that it would be perfect!"

Lucy leaned up and kissed him sweetly on the lips. "Natsu, I can't believe this! I love you so much!" Natsu returned her kiss before pulling Lucy into his arms, against his chest.

"I love you, too! That's why I've been wanting to ask you to marry me!" They stayed in each other's arms, neither sure what to do. The hug was sweet at first, but because of their uncertainty, it grew into an awkward moment. After a bit, Natsu knew what he wanted to do, but he wasn't sure how to go about it. Then, Lucy gave him the perfect opportunity.

"So, uh... What now?" the celestial mage asked tentatively.

"Well... How about this?" Natsu left Lucy's arms, but held one of her small hands within one of his larger ones. He proceeded to kneel on one knee, and held up the open ring box. Lucy was screaming internally and had a grin on her face.

"Lucy, will you mar-"

"YES! YES! YES! Of course, Natsu!" Natsu grinned widely now, and he stood up, taking the dragon ring out of its box. Lucy held out her hand, raising her ring finger slightly so Natsu could put it on her. As soon as the ring was on her finger, Lucy pulled Natsu's face against her own in a kiss.

"Natsu, Lushi, I wanna go to the guild!" Happy yelled as he flew into the kitchen, fishing pole and ribbon-wrapped fish in hand. Natsu and Lucy separated and laughed. Lucy held her hand up to show the exceed her ring.

"We're getting married, Happy!" The cat's jaw dropped and he looked at Natsu.

"I thought you were gonna ask her in a couple weeks!" Natsu's eyes widened and he fiercely shook his head, obviously wanting Happy to be quiet. "Yeah, you told me! You were gonna ask on July 3rd, the day you two met!" Lucy gaped and turned to look at Natsu. "You also said that you were gonna take her to that street in Hargeon where we met her and propose to her there!" Happy seemed to have figured out that he wasn't supposed to say all that, which was why he had been eager to keep going. Most everything being said, Happy giggled and left to go to the guild and give the couple privacy. Natsu was blushing fiercely as Lucy stared at him.

"You planned all that, Natsu?" She was surprised. Natsu didn't really plan things out; he made decisions spur-of-the-moment. She looked at him with a strange expression. It wasn't fierce or angry or anything, but it was a look that made him crack under pressure and admit everything.

"Okay, so _maybe_ I've been thinking about how I would propose to you since about a month after we got together, and _maybe_ I didn't just 'see' the ring while we were in Hargeon, and _maybe_ I'd been looking in jewelry shops all over Fiore during our jobs in the cities, and _maybe_ I finally found that one after five months of searching and _maybe_ I even asked Ice Butt and Iron Face for a little money so that I could buy the ring before my reservation on it ran out and _maybe_ I have to do something absolutely horrible the next time we're at the guild to make up for it-"

"What did you promise to do!?"

Natsu looked annoyed; not at Lucy, but at what he had to do. "Announce loudly to the entire guild that they're a million times more powerful than me and refer to them as 'Almighty Lords of Iron and Ice'."

Lucy bursted out laughing as she imagined her boyfriend- now fiancè- doing so. "You-you promised to do that!? Why didn't you just extend the hold on the ring?"

Natsu was blushing a little. "Well, about three days after I put it on hold, the store contacted me and said that somebody else was interested in the ring, so if I didn't buy it before my three week reservation ran out, then the other guy would buy it."

Lucy grinned,and fiddled with her ring a bit before pecking Natsu on the lips. "You've gone through quite the ordeal for this proposal." Natsu kissed her back, then put his hands on her shoulders and squeezed lightly.

"Luce, for you, I would go to the lowest pit of Hell and crawl my way back up to Earthland, if I had to."

Lucy pecked him on the cheek. "I would do the same for you. I love you."

"I know." Natsu cupped Lucy's face with his hands and leaned down to press his lips to hers. Lucy eagerly returned the kiss and moved her lips with his, her arms wrapping around his neck. After a few moments, they both felt, in an instant, the kiss change from sweet and loving to heated and needy, not that either of them were complaining. They grinned into the kiss as Lucy wrapped her legs around Natsu's hips while he picked her up and made his way towards the couch; it was closer than their bedroom. As Natsu kissed her harder, Lucy pressed her hands into the hair on Natsu's neck. They both grinned again when they felt Lucy's engagement ring dig into his skin. While they were both a little upset at Natsu's plans not working out, that disappointment was cancelled out by the joy they felt at being engaged to their true love.

* * *

 **A/N: I started writing this about a month ago, forgot about it, and just now finished it. Also, if anyone can come up with a better name for this, then please, let me know.**


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